Curable dental materials based on an organic monomer matrix which can be cured during application by radical polymerization are known. Examples of such dental materials are adhesives, coatings, cements or composites. With all of these materials, a good substrate adhesion, whether to dentine or tooth enamel or to another dental material, is an important property which can, however, be achieved only with difficulty due to the poor compatibility of organic monomers or polymers on the one hand and the substrate, e.g. dentine or tooth enamel, on the other.
Macrocyclic polyethers (crown ethers) and their heteroanalogous compounds (coronands or corands) in which the O atoms are partially or completely substituted by heteroatoms, above all nitrogen and sulphur, and also bicyclic crown ethers (cryptands) are known in the state of the art (e.g. C. J. Pedersen, H. K. Frensdorf, Angew. Chem. 84 (1972) 16). Examples of crown ethers or their heteroanalogous compounds are [15]crown-5, [18]crown-6 or 1,10-diaza-[18]crown-6:

In a simplified nomenclature, a crown ether with x ring members and y oxygen atoms is called [x]crown-y (cf. Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5th Ed., Vol. A8, 91 et seq.). Additional substituents are placed in front of the name as a prefix, such as e.g. dibenzo[18]crown-6. In the case of bicyclic crown ethers (cryptands), the bridging takes place via two nitrogen atoms, wherein in the designation the number of oxygen atoms of the first, second and third bridges are placed in front of the word cryptand separated by full stops, e.g. [2.2.2]cryptand:

Polymerizable macrocyclic polyethers, such as e.g. polymerizable crown ethers, are also known. Thus for example ion-binding polymers are obtained by radical polymerization of e.g. 4-vinylbenzo-[15]crown-5 (VB15C5) or 4-vinylbenzo-[18]crown-6 (VB18C6) (S. Kopolow, T. E. Hogen Esch, J. Smid, Macromolecules 6 (1973) 133).

CH-A-631 344 describes a fluoridating composition for dental enamel which, in addition to potassium or sodium fluoride and an organic solvent, such as e.g. acetone, acetonitrile or ethyl acetate, contains a complexing agent, preferably a crown ether (e.g. [18]crown-6) or a cryptand (e.g. [2.2.2]cryptand). The named macrocyclic polyethers are not polymerizable compounds. Rather, the crown ethers used bring about merely a dissolution of the fluoride, accompanied by formation of fluoride ions without a solvation shell. Poorly solvated fluoride ions are said to be absorbed better by the tooth enamel.